Sciencemadness Discussion Board

fuel cell electrode/bipolar plate

AndreLeo - 10-9-2018 at 11:36

Hello,
I am currently working two very different fuel cell types, one that uses ascorbic acid (sodium salt) as fuel and another one that is a novel iron air battery technology. The battery uses a liquid (complexed) Fe(III)/Fe(II) (redox couple) salt and a catalyst loaded porous carbon cathode. The fact the cell uses practically 100% Fe(II)/Fe(III) salt concentration makes it very hard to find bipolar plates/current collectors. Traditional copper or any other metal won't work, platinum is too expensive and graphite is intercalata-able to ions, so this would reduce efficiency dramatically. I have suggested using carbon fibre that is impregnated with a polymer, just enough to keep it conductive, but carbon fibre is hardly biocompatible, sooo any other ideas what I could use? The cell itself has a pretty high current, but the resistance of the carbon fibre would limit this to about 50mA/sqCm which is too low for my purpose of use (emergency power device)

Thanks a lot,
regards,
André

CRUSTY - 20-9-2018 at 09:57

Titanium?

macckone - 20-9-2018 at 18:54

Aluminum or Lead?

There is also a multi-layer approach with your carbon fiber and polymer over a copper core. This will greatly improve your current density.

Or you could try a conductive plastic coating over copper.
There are a number of conductive plastics now on the market.